Green Pond Country Club could be sold if controversial development not approved

Harry Fisher / The Morning Call

The crowd follows golfers during the championship division of the Lehigh Valley Amateur golf tournament at Green Pond Country Club in September. If the Traditions of America development is not approved, shareholders of the club say they want to sell the golf course.

The crowd follows golfers during the championship division of the Lehigh Valley Amateur golf tournament at Green Pond Country Club in September. If the Traditions of America development is not approved, shareholders of the club say they want to sell the golf course. (Harry Fisher / The Morning Call)

Green Pond Country Club will sell off entire property if controversial development not approved

BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP — Intense pressure from shareholders, many far removed from Bethlehem Township, could spell the end of Green Pond Country Club and its storied, 82-year-old history as a Lehigh Valley public golf course.

The looming uncertainty of whether a controversial age-restricted development can be built on land owned by the country club led 17 of the 24 shareholders in the property to vote last fall in favor of unloading the entire 238-acre property if the current proposal is rejected.

"It's not an ultimatum. It's just the facts," John Daub, chairman of the board of directors for the club, said Wednesday from his home in Arizona. "It's not a threat. It's just reality."

Township commissioners were scheduled to vote at 7 p.m. Monday on a series of waivers that would move Delaware County-based Traditions of America one step closer to development at the site, which sits adjacent to a sensitive wetlands habitat. But the meeting was canceled due to the weather. The next meeting is March 7.

The waivers were approved in a 3-2 vote in April, but the developer must secure them once more after revising the plan.

The developer received clear support from the township Planning Commission, but would still need final approval from the commissioners before beginning construction.

Daub, a member of the club's board for 40 years, plans to fly in for Monday's meeting, which township Commissioner President Pat Breslin said is expected to be packed.

The five-member board has come down on different sides of the proposal in the past. Breslin and Michael Hudak voiced general support for the development. Thomas Nolan has voted down waivers for the project in the past and Malissa Davis won election in November campaigning on the promise of curbing township development. The fifth member, Kim Jenkins, another newcomer to the board, could not be reached for comment.

Most of the shareholders for the club inherited their stake in the property and are now generations removed from those who founded the golf course, home to the Lehigh Valley Amateur, considered the top amateur golf tournament in the region. Daub bought his stakes in the course, but said selling them is tricky because they lack a market. There's been a concerted push since the late 1990s to sell off some portion of the land in order to create revenue for shareholders, according to Daub.

Intense pressure from shareholders could spell the end of Green Pond Country Club and its storied, 82-year-old history as a Lehigh Valley public golf course. Here are pictures from events at the club over the years.

(The Morning Call staff)

Toll Bros. proposed a large project on the tract a decade ago, but backed out as the housing bubble burst. In 2010, J.G. Petrucci Co.'s plans for the property also stalled.

The Traditions of America plan was well-received by shareholders because it would generate money from the selloff of 110 of the club's 238 acres while keeping the popular golf course, Daub said. But after years of false starts and sputtering attempts to find a developer, Daub said, the majority of the shareholders were too exasperated to try for another fit if the current proposal crumbled.

Unlike their ancestors who founded the course, the shareholders aren't incredibly wealthy, many live out of state and have never set foot on the course, Daub said. They're simply looking for a return on the investment of their inheritance, he said. Daub said he was among the majority who voted in favor of a sale if the Traditions plan is rejected.

"The only way we're going to get anything out of that stock is to sell," he said.

The entire 238-acre property, including the course, could accommodate roughly 350 to 360 homes, not accounting for stormwater and street requirements.

A sale would likely mark the end of a course that yearly hosts 35,000 rounds of golf and a clubhouse where about 75 couples exchange vows each year. The course has also served as the host for the Lehigh Valley Amateur, which would celebrate its 80th year this season.

The club's $800,000 payroll includes 11 full-time and 60 part-time staff who've worked there for an average of about 19 years, according to Daub.

"I would hate to see it go away," Daub said of the business. "I do not want to be the person who tells the employees that they get a pink slip because the golf course and restaurant are going to be bulldozed to put in homes."

The course was designed in 1931 by Alexander Findlay, a prolific course designer considered by some to be the father to American golf. Findlay is known for situating the greens facing south so that the golf season would last as long as possible, according to historians. With the greens facing south, the late autumn sun would continue to light the courses, allowing golfers to squeeze in an extra several weeks of play. The same position would encourage an early spring or late winter start date for the season.

Karl Gilbert, executive director of the Golf Association of the Lehigh Valley Foundation, said the sale or dismantling of the course would be a "devastating" loss to the golfing community.

"The Green Pond Country Club is an integral part of the traditions of amateur golf in the Lehigh Valley," said Gilbert, who has been flooded with emails and calls worried about the site's demise. "The golfers of the Lehigh Valley really want to see all of this worked out."

Monday will be the final pitch by Traditions of America, which operates properties in Hanover and Upper Saucon townships, to provide its "last and best" plan for the 55-and-older community along Farmersville and Green Pond roads, according to company partner and Director of Operations David Biddison. In addition to homes, the development would include a pool, clubhouse and walking trails for residents.

The new proposal scales down the number of homes from 261 to 229 and increases open space from 22 to 29 acres, including all 4.7 acres the developers have identified as wetlands habitat. It would also create a buffer around the unique ecosystem that attracts thousands of migratory birds, pushing the closest home back by 300 feet.

The company commissioned a report newly released by the environmental engineering firm Princeton Hydro, which says the new buffer zone will protect the wetlands. Stormwater management ponds placed elsewhere in the development would likely encourage more avian-friendly habitat.

"They are going above and beyond what they have to do," Commissioner Hudak said of the developers.

Hudak said he's doubtful a future developer would be as adaptable to the environmental concerns on the site.

"It would be a huge step backward from the Traditions of America plan and for the citizens who were looking forward to this," Hudak said of the prospect of the plan's rejection. "And the wetlands in the area could suffer a lot more as a result."

The Green Pond property is zoned for residential and agricultural, and as such those uses cannot be rejected outright by township officials. Hudak said this means something will go into the site at some point — even if it's not the project currently proposed.

But those who most strongly oppose the project are willing to take a chance with a future developer.

"I'd rather face the unknown than the known problem here," said Peter Saenger, an ornithologist at Muhlenberg College and president of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society. "What Traditions of America wants to do and what they've already done is criminal, in my opinion."

Saenger and other opponents, some of whom have coalesced in the form of the Save Green Pond group, maintain that the area of wetlands at the property is at least double what Traditions of America has identified. Saenger said high-density projects like the age-restricted community will discourage birds from landing, even with buffer zones.

Victoria Bastidas, whose property spans an area between Bethlehem and the township, has opposed the project in the hopes that the area remains protected for future generations.

"It's a unique spot. It's one-of-a-kind," Bastidas said, likening the attraction of the area to the irresistibility of a salt lick to a deer. "There's something very specific for those birds that makes them come there. We don't have other spots quite like that in the Lehigh Valley."

Bastidas said if the entire course is sold, perhaps a plan more amenable to the environment would be possible.

"In this case, we would obviously hope the next developer coming in would be more of a green developer and would perhaps do something in the new style of building with homes on larger lots," she said. "Someone who understands that the habitat itself is what attracts people to want to be there."

Michael Ryan and his family live at the corner of Green Pond and Farmersville roads — just across from the golf course's 15th hole. Ryan, who said he's found Traditions of America responsive to his concerns, admits he's no birder. And yet he still finds himself pulling the car over every time his children spot a regal heron or egret perched in the muddy field near his home.

"This seems like the best of both worlds, and I think it meets the needs of everyone involved," Ryan said of the final proposal from Traditions. "There's no option where nothing happens. We'd all love to see that, but it's just not an option."